130 INDIAN GAMES. 



the game was " unbecoming and indecent." Powers^-" 

 found a game among the Nishinams, on the western slope 

 of the Sierra Nevada, not fiir from Sacramento, which in 

 some respects also resembled lacrosse. He says " The 

 ^Ti'-kel ' is the only really robust and athletic game they 

 use, and is played by a large company of men and boys. 

 The piece^^^ is made of raw-hide or nowadays of strong 

 cloth, and is shaped like a small dumb-bell. It is laid in 

 the centre of a wide, level space of ground, in a furrow, 

 hollowed out a few inches in depth. Two parallel lines 

 are drawn equidistant from it, a few paces apart, and 

 along these lines the opposing parties, equal in strength, 

 range themselves. Each player is equipped with a slight, 

 strong staff, from four to six feet long. The two cham- 

 pions of the party take their stations on opposite sides of 

 the piece, which is thrown into the air, caught on the staff 

 of one of the others, and hurled by him in the direction 

 of his antagonist's goal. With this send-off there ensues 

 a wild chase and a hustle, pell-mell, higgledy-piggledy, 

 each party striving to bowl the piece over the other's goal. 

 These goals are several hundred yards apart. 



In an article in the Overland Monthly, ^" A. W. Chase 

 describes a game in vogue among the Oregon Indians 

 which he says was identical with hockey, as follows : "Sides 

 being chosen, each endeavors to drive a hard ball of pine 

 wood around a stake and in different directions ; stripped to 

 the buff, they display great activity and strength, whack- 

 ing away at each other's shins, if they are in the way, with 

 a refreshing disregard of bruises. The squaws assist in the 

 performance by beating drums and keeping up a monoto- 

 nous chant." 



"" Contributions to North American Ethnology. Vol. ill, p. 333. 

 >-' Tlie equivalent in the ginne, of the bail in lacrosse. 

 '2''' Vol. II, p. 433. See also Smith's Narrative, p. 77 



